


On the Road Again

by INeedAName



Series: Cold Hearted Killer [1]
Category: Fallout 3
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-22 03:59:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3714130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/INeedAName/pseuds/INeedAName
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A family of 3 moves from the newly-repopulated Grayditch to rejoin their son in Rivet City, with the help of some mercenaries, and things don't go quite there way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Road Again

The sun rises in the Wasteland were something else. If you could get past all the destruction and rubble, watching as the sky turns red like a freshly fired bullet, it was quite beautiful. This of course wasn’t the first time James had noticed the sunrise, the caravaners usually came pretty early in the morning to trade. But this would be the last time he would see it from the bridge that overlooked Grayditch.   
“You know, i here the sunrises are even prettier in Rivet City. If you can get to the deck.” James’ wife, Cynthia caught him off guard, and his hand leapt to his waist, where his 10mm pistol hung. “Careful there cowboy, you don’t want to break this family apart before we can be whole again,” Cynthia smiled. James just laughed, and kissed her on the head. It was true, their family wasn’t a whole yet. James and Cynthia had a child, a man of 20 now. He had left them when he was 18, taking enough ammo and supplies to last him for about a month. When he left, they were worried sick, and James’ brother Rick came to help protect them. 3 months past, and they were sure he was dead, then the caravanners gave them a letter. He was alive and doing well for himself in Rivet City.  
And now they were going to rejoin their son, with the help of a few mercenaries. It’d taken months to find anyone willing to travel all that way, especially when even finding a way across the irradiated river seemed impossible. But with almost ⅔ of their caps spent, a group of mercenaries decided to make the trip. They were scheduled to come in that morning before sunrise, but arrived fashionably late a couple hours after the caravan left. They sold all of their unnecessary and un-carryable items, and kept only 4 guns between them, and all the ammo for those that they could carry. James had only a 10mm, Cynthia had her hunting rifle, and Rick refused to leave with out a sawed off shotgun and a lever-action rifle.  
The band of mercenaries marched into the town, where they met James and the others waiting for them. They demanded half their pay first, and the rest would be delivered upon arrival. There was 3 in total, just 3 men clad in greenish armor, that had metal plating covering the shoulders, chest and legs. One of them stood taller than the other two by a few inches. He had a hat on, and glasses that hid his eyes from the world. One of the 3 had stubble all over the bottom portion of his face and a bald head, and the other was much younger, blonde, but his face never lifted from the ground. Each one had an assault rifle on their back, and a machete sheathed at their waist.  
“Alright here’s the plan,” explained the man with glasses. “We’re going to go north around the city, avoiding all confrontation. I want extra pay if even a single bullet is fired in our direction. Now, that being said, my men and I will keep our weapons out and prominent, I suggest you do the same. Raiders are dumb, but they’re not dumb enough to attack a band of 6 well armed people, unless they have some sort of ambush ready. We’re avoiding all main roads and trade routes, so we should have no issues.  
Now the river is a different story. We’ll have a raft ready for us to take you down the river almost directly to Rivet City, but the city on either side of us will be full of mutants, so we’ll meet 2 more of my members at the Arlington metro entrance on the shore. The chances of us being spotted and fired on are high during the day while on the river, and high at night when trying to get there. So if there’s any daylight left when we arrive to the metro, we’ll be waiting until well into the night before we move on. While travelling, I am the leader of this caravan. Anything i say goes, and if any of you make a stupid decision that’ll endanger any of my men, i will not hesitate to put a bullet in your head, is that understood?”   
The family nodded their heads. Rick hesitated a bit, he didn’t like this guy, mainly because he’s so protective over his family. Handing over authority was never easy to him, James knew that from their childhood.  
The man asked if there were any questions, and when no one spoke up, he turn and began walking. Puzzled, the family waited a few beats before realizing that they were meant to follow suit.   
The walking would take a few hours, and would hopefully be uneventful. No names were shared, no tunes whistled, nor stories told. There was only silence, besides the crunching of boots of dirt and crumbling cement. The man with the hat and the man with the beard led the group, while the blonde one walked the back, constantly checking over his shoulder. The only exciting thing to happen was about 2 hours into the trip. It was all going normally, when rustling was heard from a nearby building. Outraged, a man with only skin and bones jumped out of a window and came crashing to the floor. “Ghoul!” one of the men called, and the man with the hat held his hand told no one to shoot their weapon. He motioned towards the bearded man. The bearded man replaced his weapon, and unsheathed his machete and stood still.  
The ghoul charged at the man, teeth gnashing and throat screaming. The man easily ducked under the ghoul’s fist, and brought his machete across it’s chest. Red entrails fell from it’s body, as it’s rasping turned into choking. In another swift motion, the man lifted his machete into the sky, and slashed back down, landing another hit, this time on the creature’s head. The choking stopped, and the corpse fell to ground like a sack of bricks, and the world was silent. The man with the hat held a finger to the group, ensuring silence, and after a few moments he was satisfied with their safety. The bearded man returned the dripping blade into its sheath, and urged everyone to keep walking.  
And walk they did. They trudged for about another 45 minutes, until they spied a Super-Duper Mart ahead of them. “Could be full of supplies, could we check it out?” Rick asked, beginning to walk towards the building. 3 assault rifles immediately lifted and aimed at him, and Rick in turn lifted his rifle at the bearded man. “Alright everyone no need to throw this away. Like I said, I will kill you if you make a dumb decision, but then I’d probably get paid less, so it’s in both our interests that you don’t die. That mart? It’s full of raiders, not supplies,” the man with the glasses, said, as he lowered the barrel from Rick’s eyes. “We go west, to the river bank now.”  
And that was what happened. No less than half an hour later, they came across Wilhelm’s Wharf. There they made quick trade, a stimpak for some food, and continued south from there, along the river. Another half an hour later, and they met 2 other mercenaries standing calmly outside of a metal door surrounded by a concrete wall. One saw the group, and walked up to them, reaching for the assault rifle at her back. She also had glasses, and long brown hair, tied into a tail at the back of her head. She walked right past the family, and joined the blonde man at the back. The other two mercenaries stopped in their tracks, turned, and aimed their guns at James, Rick, and Cynthia, who all raised their various weapons as well.  
“Now before you walk in there, you’re going to drop all your weapons, or we’ll fill you so full of lead you’ll sink to the bottom of that river faster than you can say ‘don’t shoot,” it was the man with glasses that spoke, unsurprisingly. James and Cynthia did as they were told, but Rick took some extra convincing. It wasn’t until he noticed that all five barrels were pointed at him that he dropped his rifle; and only his rifle. The sawed off shotgun had gone amazingly unnoticed by the mercenaries, packed into the back of his pants, and covered by his shirt.  
They didn’t force them to their knees, but instead 3 mercenaires put guns to their backs, and the man with glasses went to open the door. The hunk of metal screeched open, and all 8 of them walked in. Inside, the metro was damp, dark, and smelled of rotting flesh. It didn’t take very long for James to understand why.  
The green walls of muscle and flesh that were the super mutants stood a good 2 feet taller than James. Each one was more terrifying than any of the stories he’d ever been told. The wide eyes, and evil grins that took up their entire faces, it was nightmare inducing, knowing that at any moment a thick, muscled arm could reach over and snap you like a twig.  
The family had stopped in their tracks to behold the 3 beasts that stood in front of them. 2 wore nothing but pants to cover there lower half, but the one in the middle, he had metal strapped to his right arm, and a helmet fastened onto his head. The barrels of the auto rifles jabbed into the back of each family member, forcing them into the center of the room where they were put on there knees. The man with the hat and glasses stripped himself of his only recognizable features, and stepped in from of the 3 to address the mutants.  
“It’ll be 3,000 caps for the lot, 1,500 each if you buy separately,” he spoke coolly, no hints of nervous wavering. He’d clearly dealt with these beasts before.  
“Your prices rise Malek. I could cut you down and eat you like-” the armored super mutant spoke angrily, causing the other two to stir. The one to James’ left carried a hammer the size of a mole rat, and the other had a combat shotgun. The middle was, curiously, un armed.  
The one called Malek interrupted swiftly, “We both know how that’ll end Bog. We’ve been through this before, and I’m not going to try and get it through that irradiated thick skull of yours. Those are the prices you pay or you don’t get your slaves.”  
“Slaves?! You’re not selling you little piece of shi-” Rick started. The mercenary that was standing next to him delivered a boot into the center of his chest, causing him to keel over. James noticed the two men at either end of the line had police batons in place of machetes.  
“No more price change! I’m not stupid, I will KILL,” screamed Bog.  
“Yes yes yes, now hand over the 3,000 or-” Malek was cut off by a disturbance behind him. Rick had gone for his shotgun. He aimed it at the Mercenary’s legs, but before he could pull the trigger he kicked his wrist away. The shot fired, into the ceiling, and the man shoved the butt of his rifle into Rick’s face. He through the rifle to the floor, knelt on top of him, then punched him in the face over, and over, and over, and over. Malek watched for a few moments before picking up Rick’s dropped weapon, then the mercenary of off Rick’s unconscious body.  
“2,500 for the 3 of them, current state,” Malek said. The mutant just grumbled as he handed over 5 bags of caps to Malek. “Alright boys, hand ‘em over.” James had just enough time to hear Cynthia plead, then hear the sickening crunch before she fell to the floor. He felt a force at the back of his head, and the world turned black.

 

* * *  
He woke an undeterminable amount of time later. He didn’t open his eyes, in fear of what he might see what the mutants may have done to him or his family. Instead he took stock of what he could. He felt wind blowing, a slight breeze. He heard metal creaking, only a few inches from his head, and a firing crackling a few feet behind him. It must’ve been a big one, he could feel the heat on his back. There was a weird tugging sensation on his arms. Then the smell hit him. So indescribably awful, it nearly choked him. It was as if someone had ripped open a rotting corpse and forced it into his nose.   
Then his heart dropped. He couldn’t feel the ground below him, and he opened his eyes. James was hanging by his chained wrists about 35 feet above the ground. Rivet City was visible, they could help him and his family, maybe, hopefully. Please, help us. There was grunting noise, and James screamed as a massive hand wrapped around his ankle, and another around his waist. He’s lifted into the air, and hefted over a mutant’s shoulder. They walk a few paces, and beast tosses him to the floor, and the landing knocks the wind out of him. He looked around him for someone, anything, Cynthia, Rick, a gun, a way out. But all that surrounded him were net bags of red, mush and various bones and other entrails. Blood seeped from every bit of it.   
James tossed his head around. 4 mutants, all eating flesh of of bones as blood ran red down their horrid, mangled faces. James screamed, and choked on his puke. He screamed for Cynthia, he screamed for her to run, and he tried to run himself. A familiar big hand grabbed his ankle, and tossed him like a ragdoll backwards. The mutant beat him senseless, screaming and yelling as he did so. James could only sob. There was a mutilated corpse, hanging by a hook above the giant fire they had built. All James could think was please, not Cynthia, not Rick, please, let me go. His tears and blood and sweat puddled around him, and every bit of him ached. He couldn’t move anything.   
He vaguely noticed being moved, and next thing he knew he was on his knees, next to another giant mutant. They placed him in a corner full of gore bags, and he couldn’t look away. The beast next to him looked similar to the one Malek called ‘Bog’, in that he was armored, but they’re all so massive he couldn’t tell one from the other. He just wept, and hoped maybe he would shoot him with the minigun at his feet before cooking him.  
“Golg, unhook the meat and replace it, I need more,” he heard one say. James heard heavy footsteps, and a chain link clang, then an ear shattering BANG, rang out across the yard. He turned to look at the mutant, and saw a fountain of blood where it’s head should’ve been. It’s massive green body dropped into the fire with a thud. The mutant next to him began to scream at the top of his lungs. It grabbed the minigun it had been standing next to and fired at the building across the street, and never stopped screaming. Shots fired and bullets flew seamlessly for a good 10 minutes. There was sickening noises he could hear of mutant heads popping further down the hill, and the sound of bullets making contact with the unrelenting brute that had the minigun.  
James only huddled in his corner, and prayed they all died, that all their faces would explode as the first one’s had. There was one last sound of a bullet connecting, hen the mutant screamed, and his body fell only inches a foot away from James. The yard was silent, save for James’ now tearless sobs. A few moments passed, and a footsteps sounded behind him.  
“Get up,” a woman’s voice calls. James only returns to a kneeling position, and he turns to face the fighter that just saved his life from an army of mutants.  
“Oh my God thank you thank you thank thank-,” James stops when he lifts his eyes to meet fighter’s. He never gets there though, instead his eyes stare down the barrel of a .32 caliber pistol. He looks at the face of this woman, and only sees his reflection in her goggles. The rest of her face is covered by a bandana and a cowboy hat.  
She pulls back the hammer, and fires a round into the center of James’ head.


End file.
